OLLI course on Civil War offered

This grave marker in the Sisters of Providence Cemetery marks the final resting place
of Sister Athanasius Forgarty, a sister-nurse during the Civil War.

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, have a unique connection with the Civil War. The sisters served as sister-nurses at Military Hospital in Indianapolis as well as at a hospital in Vincennes, Ind. You can learn more about this history by participating in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Indiana State University course, “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” This class will be offered on the beautiful motherhouse grounds of the Congregation on Tuesday and Thursday, Aug. 14 and 16, from 2 to 4 p.m. (EDT) in the Community Room of Providence Hall. The course will be presented by Congregation staff member Connie McCammon.

You do not have to be an OLLI member to attend this class. You may register online or call 812-237-8707 for more information. Please register by Monday, Aug. 13.

We look forward to seeing you on Aug. 14 and 16!

Archives: a way to connect with people

Have you ever thought of Archives as being a ministry? Perhaps not, but according to Sister Marianne Mader, Archives researcher for the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., it is. “[Archives] is a way of connecting with other people,” she notes in the summer 2012 issue of HOPE, now available online.

The Sisters of Providence are blessed with an awesome Archives. Truly, this department was created when the Congregation’s foundress, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, put pen to paper and wrote her journals as well as thousands of letters to her sisters in France, sisters here in the United States and countless friends and donors.

This issue of HOPE is dedicated to the keeper of the stories — the many women who have dedicated their lives to preserving the history of the Sisters of Providence. In this issue you’ll learn about the ways in which Archives collaborates with various entities across the state of Indiana. You’ll also learn about the work Sister Maureen Abbott is doing in writing the fourth volume of the Congregation’s history. Additionally, you’ll learn a little more about the story behind the “CNN Presents” program on the canonization of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

As always, you’ll find the usual articles — her-story, photo albums, newsnotes, alumnae/i news, obituaries and upcoming events. Check it out now!

Arequipa, Peru, focus of Heritage Museum exhibit

This artwork of The Last Supper is just one of many artifacts and documents on display in the Heritage Museum
of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, ministered in Arequipa, Peru, from 1963 to 1975. A new Heritage Museum exhibit in Providence Center at the Woods focuses upon this ministry. It is free and open to the public.

In 1960, all U.S. religious congregations were asked by Pope John XXIII to create missions in Latin America beginning as soon as possible. In March of 1963, Sisters Veronica Hester (RIP), Kathleen O’Connor (RIP) and Monica Withem (RIP) left Indiana for this new mission in South America. The sisters ministered at the all-boys Colegio de San José and worked closely with the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

Included in this exhibit are many hand-carved items such as Nativity sets, dolls, crosses and Arte Grotesque pieces. Hand-crafted items include blankets, ponchos, napkins, purses, a sterling silver cross and a picture frame. There are also several paintings, photos, school annuals, plus much more.

The Heritage Museum is located in Providence Center and is open during the center's normal hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (EDT), and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (EDT). Click here for directions  to Providence Center

A great day in the neighborhood!

Any time you can visit Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, is a good day, but when the sun is shining brightly as it did today, then you’re in for a special treat! That’s just what nearly 30 people received today when they attended the In Your Neighborhood event sponsored by the Local History Services of the Indiana Historical Society. Sister Mary Ryan, archivist for the Sisters of Providence, hosted the event.

For a few images of our great day, visit here.

Local History Services meeting offered at the Woods

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, will be hosting an In Your Neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 22, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (EST). In Your Neighborhood is offered by the Local History Services of the Indiana Historical Society. The guest presenter will be Cinda May, Wabash Valley Visions and Voices project coordinator. Also present will be members of the Local History Services staff. The public is invited to attend this gathering.

The meeting will take place on the motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of Providence in Owens Hall in the auditorium. Free parking is available. If you need directions to the Woods, please click here.

Attending In Your Neighborhood meetings is a great way to meet, share and connect with other historical organizations and county historians. In these casual gatherings, learn what others have done that has worked well or not so well in their local history organizations and find out about available resources.

Video explores Civil War service of Sisters of Providence

Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly, general superior from 1856 to 1868

Shortly after the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, Oliver Perry Morton, Indiana governor, asked for the assistance of the Sisters of Providence in the administration of City Hospital in Indianapolis. After inspecting the facility, Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly, general superior of the Congregation, agreed to send sisters to what would become known as Military Hospital.

A new video illustrates how the sisters responded to this call for nurses. First of all, the hospital was in terrible disarray. According to the Community diary of the Congregation, “They [the sisters] found the new hospital in a miserable state of filth and disorder, and the sick in a wretched condition. The Sisters labored very hard to put the hospital in proper condition; their exertions were crowned with the greatest success. The change they soon effected in making it a clean, comfortable house for the sick soldiers, filled the people with admiration and inspired great confidence in them.”

Learn more about the heroic service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War on the Congregation’s website for fourth- through eighth-grade students, WoodsUp.

The Sisters of Providence and the Civil War: a presentation in Sullivan

Sister Henrietta MacKenzie served as a nurse during the Civil War.

“Cloistered by the majestic forest, the Convent and the Academy at St. Mary-of-the-Woods in 1860 would seem to have been too remote, too securely enclosed, to hear the rumblings of the approaching national disturbance. Echoes of trouble, however, reached even to this secluded spot,” wrote Sister Mary Theodosia Mug in her 1931 monograph of the Civil War, “Lest We Forget: The Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods in Civil War Service.”

And those rumblings would eventually lead the Sisters of Providence to serve the Union as sister-nurses in Indianapolis and Vincennes, Ind.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 105 E. Jackson Street, Sullivan, Ind., Connie McCammon, a communications staff member in the Office of Congregational Advancement of the Sisters of Providence, will present “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” Connie will share the story of Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly and the courageous sisters who answered a call to service during a turbulent time in the nation’s history.

Connie will also include information about the Wabash Valley Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, a special collection of Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (WV3). Other partners include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library, the Vigo County Historical Society, the Sullivan County Public Library, the Sullivan County Historical Society and the Sullivan County Clerk’s and Recorder’s Offices.

The public is invited to attend this presentation. For more information about the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War, check out the Congregation’s children’s website, WoodsUp.com.

Learn more about Sister Henrietta MacKenzie, who is pictured above.

Celebrating a saint among us

It’s October and for the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., it’s a very, very special month. Saint Mother Theodore Guerin was born Oct. 2, 1798, in Etables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. As a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, her feast day is celebrated Oct. 3. She was canonized Oct. 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican in Rome. And lastly, Saint Mother Theodore and her companion-sisters first stepped foot on the sacred ground of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on Oct. 22, 1840.

Indeed, there is much to celebrate this month!

In the Sisters of Providence collection, there is plenty of material that relates to this Indiana saint. In this collection, you can find many artifacts, like the watch above, that belonged to Saint Mother Theodore. Her artifacts include everyday items like sewing kits, sabots (gardening shoes) and wallets to the sacred — her rosary and chaplet.

Learn more about the saint in our midst.

Sisters of Providence given permission to swim!

June 29, 1953: This is a very special day in the history of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. This was the day that the sisters were given permission to swim!

Sisters John Mary Rifner and Martha Ann Rifner (yes, they are sisters, too!) were two of the sisters who were excited about this new opportunity.

According to a web article, “Sister John Mary certainly remembered that June day in 1953 when word was received that swimming was permitted.

“‘Mother Marie Helene [Franey, general superior from 1948 to 1953] came in and told the postulants and novices that they would be permitted to swim,’ said Sister John Mary.

“Soon the sisters received their new seersucker suits that looked like a short dress. Panties and bras were necessary undergarments to wear with the suit.

“‘As soon as you got into the water it clung to you,’ said Sister Martha Ann.

“‘And when you jumped in the water, the skirt would come up over you and you didn’t know whether you were drowning or alive,’ laughed Sister John Mary. ”

The photograph above shows the swimming pool that was located in the old gymnasium on the motherhouse grounds. The pool was once shared with the students at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Sparks from chimney start fire at Military Hospital

Indiana Governor Oliver Morton asked the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., to provide assistance in the administration of City Hospital in Indianapolis right after the April 12, 1861 attack on Fort Sumter. The Congregation graciously responded to the request and served soldiers — Union and Confederate — for the duration of the Civil War at Military (formerly City) Hospital (pictured).

In the Archives of the Sisters of Providence are several transcripts of two Indianapolis newspapers. The transcripts give one a glimpse into the daily life of the sister-nurses and their charges. The Indianapolis Daily Journal relates the following article about a fire in the hospital in its Monday, Jan. 16, 1865, issue:

“Yesterday morning about eight o’clock, the City Hospital was discovered to be on fire in the roof, having caught from the sparks from the chimney. Through the exertions of the attaches, however, who cut a hole in the roof in another place, and applied a wholesome quantity of water, the fire was extinguished with slight damage. The water occasioned some inconvenience in some of the rooms, but the energy of Drs. Kitchen and Wishard soon made all comfortable again. The Hospital is full of sick and wounded and we shudder at the bare contemplation of the consequences had the fire got a fair headway. It was the wooden addition that was on fire, and owing to its combustible nature, it would have been speedily consumed.”

This transcript is part of the collection of the Sisters of Providence in the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project. See more documents and artifacts in the Sisters of Providence collection.

Check out this Civil War brass cartridge box

There’s a plethora of artifacts waiting to be discovered on the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project website. Take, for instance, this solid brass cartridge box that is part of the Vigo County Historical Society’s collection. It was used by John T. Merry during the Civil War. This particular artifact has multiple photographs for better viewing.

Also participating in this special 150th anniversary Civil War website are the Vigo County Public Library and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, in conjunction with Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library.

The project has been funded by a Library Services Technology Act Digitization Grant (LSTA).

Sisters of Providence answer a call to duty

On May 17, 1861, the Civil War touched the lives of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. On that date, the sisters were placed in charge of all “domestic arrangements” like washing, cooking and cleaning at City Hospital, soon to be known as Military Hospital, in Indianapolis. Their services were not limited to these duties, as Sisters of Providence also served as nurses.

The Sisters of Providence certainly weren’t the only women’s religious congregation to answer the call to duty during the Civil War. “Nuns of the Battlefield,” written by Ellen Ryan Jolly and originally published in 1927, tells the story of other religious congregations that aided Union and Confederate soldiers. This monograph highlights the women’s religious congregations that ministered to soldiers during the Civil War.

To learn more about the service of the Sisters of Providence, take a look at “Lest We Forget,” a short history of the service provided by the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War. This book was published in 1931 by Providence Press and was written by Sister Mary Theodosia Mug. This book may be small, but it is filled with excellent information about the service of the sisters at Military Hospital in Indianapolis.

Be sure to visit our Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project!

Sisters of Providence open new exhibit in Heritage Museum

In 1839, prior to leaving France for the mission at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., Saint Mother Theodore Guerin was recognized by the Academy of Angers for her pedagogical skills.

In 1987, an Indiana House Resolution was passed honoring and congratulating Sister of Providence Cecilia Clare Bocard (died 1994) for her several and varied contributions to the fields of music and education.

Before Sister of Providence Merry Marcotte (died 2008) entered the Congregation on Aug. 24, 1974, she served in military and field hospitals in Vietnam and received an award in 1970 from the 93 D Evacuation Hospital-Long Binh, Vietnam.

These are just three of the awards in a new exhibit in the Heritage Museum in Providence Center at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., that features several awards that sisters have received throughout the years.

The public is invited to visit the Heritage Museum and learn more about the many ways Sisters of Providence have been recognized for their service and dedication.

The Heritage Museum is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Lest We Forget: A presentation in Marshall, Illinois

Less than a month after the April 12, 1861, attack on Fort Sumter, Indiana Gov. Oliver Perry Morton requested that the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., provide assistance in the administration of City Hospital in Indianapolis, which had been turned over to the federal government for the care of soldiers. This hospital soon became known as Military Hospital and the Sisters of Providence became “Angels of Mercy” to Union and Confederate soldiers alike.

On Thursday, April 14, at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) at the Marshall Public Library, 612 Archer Avenue, Marshall, Ill., Connie McCammon, a communications staff member in the Office of Congregational Advancement of the Sisters of Providence, will present “Lest We Forget: The Civil War Service of the Sisters of Providence.” The event is free and open to the public. Connie will share the story of Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly and the courageous sisters who answered a call to service during a turbulent time in the nation’s history.

With the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War this year, the Sisters of Providence are proud to be a part of the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, a special collection of Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (WV3), a digital memory project. Other partners include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library and the Vigo County Historical Society. All digitized items are fully searchable online. A Library Services and Technology Act Mini-Digitization Grant from the Indiana State Library provided funding for this project.

To learn more about the service of the Sisters of Providence during the Civil War, visit the Congregation’s children’s website.

Letters from the battlefield

As we rapidly approach the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Wabash Valley Visions & Voices is putting the final touches on a special collection celebrating and remembering the War Between the States or the War of the Rebellion. Many of the items in this collection are personal letters of soldiers. These letters provide a “ground level” view of the war — the hardships, sickness, death and, yes, the simple joys of life.

One such letter [a transcript] is from Confederate soldier Joseph Thompson to his wife, Mary, written near Corinth, Miss., April 27-29, 1862. It is part of the Vigo County Historical Society’s collection. Part of this letter reads:

“At dress parade, an order from [P.G.T.] Beauregard [Confederate general] was read commanding us to cook five days[’] rations and always keep that much ahead. Our boys were very much excited last evening as it was thought that the enemy would attack us this morning. They are surely advancing upon us. Yesterday, our advance guard had a bloody skirmish with them. Quite a number of our men was lost. Indeed, there is not a day but what there is a skirmish.

“The conscript law is, I fear, going to do much more harm than good. Our Volunteers are greatly excited. While regiments and companies whose time expired last week are now under arrest for stacking arms and declaring they would go home. The Soldiers feel that this law takes away their liberties and robs them of all the honor and patriotism of volunteering. With compulsory feeling in their breasts, they never will fight as they have done.

“They say that they will pay us today and, as soon as I get the money, I will close this letter. O, how I wish I could take the money to you my Self! Although my time is now so short, God only knows, in these critical times what may happen [h]ere then. But some how, I am bouyed up by hope, and hope bids me be of good cheer. What a blessed thing is hope.”

To view this transcript more closely, click here. To learn more about the Vigo County Indiana Civil War Sesquicentennial Project, visit here.

The digitization of Civil War memorabilia is made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act Mini-Digitization Grant from the Indiana State Library. Partners in the project include Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library, the Vigo County Public Library, the Vigo County Historical Society and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind.

Are you sure this is the right location?

“What was our astonishment to find ourselves still in the midst of the forest, no village, not even a house in sight. Our guide having given orders to the driver, led us down into a ravine, whence we beheld through the trees on the other side a frame house with a stable and some sheds. ‘There,’ he said, ‘is the house where the postulants have a room, and where you will lodge until your house is ready.’”

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence, wrote these words in her journal about the evening she and her five sister-companions first stepped foot on Saint Mary-of-the-Woods soil on Oct. 22, 1840. Today, the Sisters of Providence celebrate Oct. 22 as Foundation Day.

To view sketches of some of the early buildings erected on the motherhouse grounds, click here. To learn more about Indiana’s first saint, visit here.

Celebrating a saint!

October is a very special month for the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. The celebrating starts on Oct. 2, the birthday of this saint. She entered this world in 1798 in the village of Etables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. Her parents gave her the name Anne-Thérèse.

On Oct. 15, 2006, during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI canonized her as a saint of the Catholic Church. Her Feast Day is celebrated Oct. 3.

Another special day is Oct. 22, Foundation Day. On this date in 1840, Mother Theodore and her five sister-companions came to the Woods. Every Sister of Providence knows the famous words spoken by Father Buteux on this historic evening: “Come down, Sisters, we have arrived.”

In the sisters’ collection on WV3, you can view some of the artifacts that belonged to Mother Theodore. You can also view her journals that were penned by her own hand. The earliest journals are written in French.

To visit the collection of the Sisters of Providence, click here. To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, visit here.